Killing Time
by Cosmo Memory
Summary: From the Sector 5 Reactor to the Sector 7 Plate Support, through the eyes of Jessie, Biggs and Wedge. Slight JessiexCloud unrequited. Completed.
1. Ludicrous Body

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

Ludicrous Body

In the darkness of the Midgar slums, a train flew along its tracks, carrying both the bravest of the slums' inhabitants and the Shinra guards assigned to maintain order amongst them. Had it not been for six passengers aboard the train, this fact would have gone completely unnoticed by the city's inhabitants – after the previous day's bombing in Sector 1, most sensible people were at home, cowering in fear of another attack, not risking using a train when the rebels could be anywhere. However, in the days to come, every detail of this train's journey was to be scrutinised in the boardrooms of Shinra, in the news stations on the plate, in the streets of the city's slums – until the next crisis took place. But this could not have been known by the train's passengers that day – although the rebels who set off the security alarm, raced through the train as though their lives were at stake, and finally hurtled from the speeding vehicle to land in a tunnel infested with soldiers, leaving their allies behind to fend for themselves, may have had some idea of the chaos they were about to unleash.

Inside the train, Wedge stood near his two companions, trying desperately to project the right combination of concern at the failure of the Shinra to capture the terrorists and a feeling of supreme entitlement to his position at the front of the train in a guard's uniform. Which, considering that the uniform had been stolen from a Shinra soldier Biggs had rendered unconscious the previous night in their attempt to move from what remained of the Sector 1 reactor to their Sector 7 hideout while avoiding detection by Shinra forces, and that he had been whispering words of encouragement to the terrorists only seconds earlier, was harder than it might appear. Beside him, Biggs, also dressed in a guard's uniform, was grinning maniacally. He was always enthusiastic about the possibility of any situation involving Shinra troops degenerating into an all-out brawl, and he had no talent for hiding his emotions.

"Biggs?" Wedge muttered.

"Yeah?" The noise made Wedge wince. Half the train must have heard that.

"Most Shinra employees do not grin when terrorists have escaped. The leaders of Shinra aren't known for leniency regarding mistakes among their soldiers, and most of the soldiers know this. Can I suggest that you –" Wedge noticed the guards from the carriage adjoining theirs enter the carriage and march towards them and stopped mid-sentence.

"Never mind. Let me talk, and don't draw attention to yourself."

Wedge turned towards Jessie momentarily. She looked uncomfortable in her stolen soldier's armour, but hopefully the light in the train would be dim enough to hide this from the Shinra troops, who presumably wouldn't be looking at them too closely in any case. The other passengers were shooting nervous looks towards the Shinra guards, and trying to leave the carriage without looking like they had something to hide. Wedge was intensely grateful for the fear the troops created. The other passengers had probably seen Wedge talking to Barrett and the others, but with them out of the way, he might be able to hide the truth until they reached the Sector 5 station.

One of the soldiers approached Biggs. Wedge almost groaned, but stopped himself just in time. He pleaded silently with whatever cosmic forces might be listening for the guard not to talk to Biggs, fearing that he would realise they weren't part of Shinra from Biggs's behaviour – that smile hadn't gone away. But Wedge's internal plea went unanswered – the soldier barely seemed to notice him, having focused all his attention on Biggs - and he was forced to remain silent and hope for the best.

"What are you doing here, soldier?" The Shinra guard carried himself with an air of self-confidence which bordered on arrogance. Wedge had seen that kind of attitude among the Shinra many times before, and thought that this man was probably the leader of the squad. At any rate, the other soldiers seemed to defer to him, standing back and remaining silent.

Much to Wedge's surprise, Biggs responded perfectly. "We're on the lookout for the escaped passengers, sir!" he exclaimed, as his hand flew almost reflexively into a salute. Wedge glanced at him approvingly. For all his inability to hide emotion, Biggs could disguise himself fairly well, when the situation called for it.

"Well, which way did they go?" The leader was obviously impatient, and Wedge suspected that vagueness on their part would not be appreciated.

"Um… we haven't seen them, sir. I think they must still be in another carriage. Unless they jumped off the train." Biggs was looking around nervously as he spoke, and the soldiers glared at him suspiciously.

"Is that a fact?" Biggs nodded frantically, apparently noticing the disbelief in the captain's voice.

"No one has come in here since the security alert started." Jessie was valiantly trying to take control of the conversation, but this seemed to be a losing battle.

"I think you're lying. We've personally checked all the other carriages, and as for jumping off the train – do you have any idea how fast we're traveling? The passengers may be stupid – they oppose Shinra, of course they are – but that doesn't mean they're suicidal." Wedge couldn't argue with the soldier on that count. The plan had seemed ridiculously dangerous to him as well. But then, most of AVALANCHE's plans seemed to him to be composed of gratuitous risk taking, and they usually worked – and it's unfair to judge plans made in twenty seconds after fake IDs fail to work too harshly.

"Well, what do you have to say to that?" Out of the corner of his eye, Wedge noticed Biggs sidling towards the door.

Biggs's movement apparently drew the soldier's attention towards the open door. "Stop! Why is that door open?" Wedge could almost see his brain working frantically to understand this turn of events. He waited for the guard to put two and two together – given the average intelligence of Shinra troops, he felt justified in relaxing slightly.

"They're with the terrorists! Stop them!" the captain barked at the other soldiers. Wedge blinked – he'd never seen a Shinra captain reach an accurate conclusion in this short a space of time without a minute-long mental warm-up first. He could feel the train slowing, knew the station was close, and forced himself to move towards the door. Biggs and Jessie were already there, preparing to jump and hoping desperately to land on the platform.

Biggs went first, turning in mid-air to wave at the soldiers and narrowly avoiding a bullet fired by one of the grunts. He hit the concrete of the station floor on his back, and lay on the ground in pain for a few moments before forcing himself to his feet. Jessie followed him immediately, her stolen armour stopping every bullet fired at her. Wedge had heard how durable Shinra-issued armour was, but had never quite believed it until now Wedge was standing next to the open door by now, and the train had slowed almost completely. As the squad leader raised his shotgun, Wedge considered making a comment about the stupidity of designing armour which your own bullets can't penetrate, considering the ease with which the armour could be obtained, but decided that he'd quite like to keep his reputation as the sensible member of AVALANCHE – not to mention a life which wasn't extremely painful and very short. Gathering all the strength he possessed, Wedge half-jumped, half-fell off the train. He could hear the gunshots from the train just above his head, but he had almost hit the platform by now, and –

- he hit the ground standing, but he was unable to keep his balance and toppled forwards. For several seconds, he lay on his stomach, unable to rise, watching the Shinra guards outside the reactor looking at him suspiciously – they'd heard the gunfire from inside the train and watched Jessie and Biggs jump before him, they knew something unusual was going on. Then he could feel the other AVALANCHERs pulling him to his feet and dragging him along as they ran down the tunnel the train had emerged from seconds earlier – they couldn't go into the reactor via the station now, the soldiers from the train had gotten off and were telling the reactor guards what had happened. Fortunately, the pain was starting to diminish – he apparently hadn't done any major damage to himself. He was still in pain - his left ankle in particular hurt, but that had been damaged many times before, and Wedge had become accustomed to continuing his work while injured in his time with AVALANCHE.

Wedge could hear the shouts of the reactor guards as they chased him, but he was able to move on his own by now, and even injured as he was, he had enough of a head start to get too far into the tunnel for the guards to pursue him – they weren't allowed to go far from their posts, in case someone tried to get in while others were distracting them. The guards from the train had apparently given up chasing them to search for Barrett and the others – which had, after all, been their job - but Wedge had an uneasy feeling, a feeling that they wouldn't escape those soldiers that easily.

"Are you injured badly?" They were some distance into the tunnel now, and Jessie and Biggs stopped running to let him have a rest. Wedge smiled at Jessie, trying to reassure her.

"I'm fine. I always knew that someday, there would be a benefit to being a grossly overweight guerilla. I wasn't expecting it to being shock absorption after falling from a moving train, but… I'm not complaining." It was a weak joke, but it seemed to relieve Jessie.

"Let's move." Biggs was apparently becoming restless. "The Shinra troops will realise where we've gone any minute, and we have to get to the reactor at about the same time as the others.

"Well, we're not going to be able to get into the reactor now – not by the main entrance at least. But then, neither are Barrett and the rest, so we can try to find a way in from around here. Jessie, do you know of any entrance to the reactor from this tunnel?" Wedge knew it was a long shot, but they didn't seem to have any other options.

"I don't carry a perfect map of Midgar in my head, you know. That sort of thing isn't on the official diagrams of Midgar – not the kind most people have access to, anyway. There's probably a way in near the security sensors – there usually is." Jessie pointed to beams of light Wedge could just faintly see at the end of the tunnel.

"Come on, let's go and take a look." Biggs was obviously reluctant to stay still any longer, and began to lead them towards the sensor.

"The Shinra are remarkable in that way. What kind of leader hires a city planner overconfident enough to build an air duct right next to a security check point?" Wedge had often wondered this, but he'd always had a faint feeling that he might jinx himself if he mentioned it to anyone - all the air ducts might be boarded up, or something of that nature. He was glad Jessie had asked for him.

"It's to demonstrate their power." Wedge was startled to hear something like this from Biggs. But then again, he should be used to this by now. Every time he thought Biggs was just an aggressive man with a grudge against Shinra and a brain cell deficit, Biggs would prove him wrong by coming up with an explanation for something no one else could understand – and which always seemed perfectly obvious after he explained it.

Biggs continued. "You see, the Shinra are power hungry. They like to control people – and make a show of the fact that they can. In this case, they make it perfectly easy to find a way into a reactor – yet no one tries to. Why? Because the Shinra have convinced the people that it is in their best interests to use Mako. And putting in an air duct leading to a reactor which no one ever tries to use to destroy the reactor - because they've been convinced that they need reactors - is the Shinra's way of showing us that we'll never gain support from the public."

Wedge whistled softly to himself, making a mental note never to underestimate Biggs's mental capacity again. He could see the glowing light of the sensor beams much more clearly now, and guessed that they'd almost reached the checkpoint. Jessie crossed to the other side of the tunnel to look for an air duct, while Biggs crouched lower on the same side. Wedge prayed that there would be no trains anytime soon, and tried to peer though the beams to see where Barrett and the rest of AVALANCHE might be. He saw nothing of them, but he could hear faint sounds of gunfire. Wedge sighed quietly - it seemed that, no matter how carefully they planned, AVALANCHE just couldn't avoid endless waves of Shinra grunts.

"Hey, I can feel some kind of entrance down here. I think it connects up with that one, on the other side of the checkpoint. If Barrett, Cloud and Tifa got off the train where I think they did, that's the one they'll use to get into the reactor." Jessie was speaking softly; trying not to attract attention from the guards they all knew couldn't be far away. They were in no condition to fight at the moment.

"What entrance?" Wedge felt rather embarrassed at not being able to see anything there. Jessie pointed to the spot – it was perhaps two paces away from the security beams.

"I didn't see that. Too busy listening for the others. Do you think we'll fit through the – what is it? An air duct?" Wedge was starting to feel anxious about this plan. Being overweight may help in fighting Shinra sometimes, but in squeezing through narrow tunnels, it was decidedly detrimental.

Jessie nodded. "I think so." By the light of the sensor beams, she saw the look of unease that Wedge was trying to hide. "Don't worry, you'll fit through. _Barrett_ could fit through here – it's ridiculously wide."

"I hope he can - he's going to have to go through the duct on the other side." Wedge muttered, half to himself.

"Look, can we please hurry?" Biggs sounded exasperated. "We really don't have time to stand around and chat."

Jessie nodded. "You're right, we should get moving." She crouched down and began to crawl slowly through the tunnel, closely followed by Biggs. After casting one last, worried look around the tunnel, Wedge knelt and gradually maneuvered his body into the air duct.

A few metres away from him, concealed by the shadows of the tunnel, the Shinra captain smirked. When the sounds of the rebels moving through the duct had died away, he turned to the other soldiers. "Don't worry, men. We'll have our revenge soon enough."


	2. Flashy Stuff

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

Flashy Stuff

The air duct was almost completely dark. Although some light still entered the passage from the beams of the security checkpoint, that was growing ever dimmer as Jessie moved forwards. Apart from Wedge's grunts as he tried to move through the narrow passage and Biggs's occasional mutters, meant for his ears alone, there was no sound either. Even the sound of gunfire from what Jessie assumed to be Barrett, Cloud and Tifa fighting the Shinra troops unlucky enough to have a job patrolling a railway tunnel on the day of an AVALANCHE attack had ceased. Although… if she listened very carefully, she thought she could hear a train, far in the distance. With any luck, Barrett and the others would manage to find the air duct on the other side of the checkpoint before the train reached their section of the tunnel. If they didn't, it was only a matter of time before Shinra found Jessie, Biggs and Wedge in the reactor, waiting for their now dead allies.

Jessie reached out her right hand to continue crawling through the duct – and stopped abruptly when she felt only the air. Biggs immediately tensed behind her. "What is it?" he hissed.

"Nothing, Biggs. I think we've reached the end of the passage, that's all." Biggs had a tendency to overreact whenever the success of a mission was involved. While Jessie was impressed by his dedication, after the fourth time he pulled out his gun in front of a large crowd of slum dwellers because he heard the words 'AVALANCHE plot', she had decided it was a trait he needed to lose as quickly as possible.

"Well, how do we get out?" Wedge was obviously still worried they'd be trapped in the tunnel. Jessie sighed slightly. Between Wedge's constant worrying, Biggs's scarily single-minded dedication to the group, and Barrett's inability to solve any problem without using his gun-arm and a long stream of profanity, she sometimes wondered whether it was worth staying in AVALANCHE. Of course, the Shinra had to be overthrown for the good of the Planet and all its inhabitants, but Jessie didn't see their bombing campaign having much of an effect – besides turning the population of Midgar against them. And how could she blame them for being angry with AVALANCHE when the group's actions were causing the deaths of these people's loved ones? Much as she loved working out how to build weapons and get into reactors, she couldn't forget the human suffering she caused by doing this in the way the others seemed to be able to.

"There's a ladder down here. Assuming this reactor is constructed in the same way as Sector 1's, we should come out near the entrance above those huge pipes." Jessie felt that this was a fairly safe assumption to make, considering the designer of Midgar's apparent love of repetition.

Wedge considered this. "That's fairly near the reactor core. Do you think we need to split up to show the others which way to go? I mean, Cloud obviously knows his way around a reactor, they should be able to find their way in."

Jessie grimaced, thankful for the darkness which hid her face. She supposed it wasn't technically necessary, but she wanted to talk to Cloud without everyone else listening, to apologise about her mistake with the fake IDs – and perhaps to explain why it had happened, if she could find some courage within herself. She didn't know what it was about Cloud that drew her to him. Yes, he'd saved her in the Sector 1 reactor – but what choice did he have? She had the password which could get them out. She'd heard him say that he couldn't care less about AVALANCHE or the Planet or anyone but himself – he hadn't been trying to lower his voice last night when he argued with Tifa and Barrett. But she knew that he was lying. How could a promise made seven years ago still affect him if he didn't care about what happened to AVALANCHE – and therefore to Tifa? Why would he take on missions that Shinra would execute him for taking part if he was caught for a few thousand gil, when he could easily make more fighting monsters in the wasteland around Midgar, if the fate of the Planet meant nothing to him?

Biggs's voice shattered the silence of the tunnel. "I think we should still split up. We can watch for guards more effectively if we aren't all in the one spot. Even if Cloud knows as much about reactors as he says he does, he can't be in three places at once to fight guards - and if we split up, we can."

Still trying to focus after being snatched so suddenly away from her thoughts, Jessie thought about this from a moment before answering. "Biggs is right. However, we can't alert the guards to our presence, so no fighting, just watching."

"I suppose you're right." Wedge agreed, somewhat grudgingly.

"You scared, Wedge? You can stand next to the ladder, if you want. That way, you can leave first." Jessie couldn't tell if Biggs was taunting Wedge or honestly being kind - she suspected a bit of both. She knew that Biggs was frustrated by Wedge's disinclination for direct combat, but he rarely openly insulted him – he was too busy badmouthing those who wouldn't join AVALANCHE.

"You expect me to climb back up this air duct?" Wedge sounded incredulous.

"Well, if you'd rather walk straight through the reactor without the codes for the doors, meaning you'll be inside when it explodes - if by some miracle the soldiers don't tear you to pieces first - be my guest." Irritation was creeping into Biggs's voice. "The others will be in the reactor any minute – can we climb down that ladder now, Jessie?"

She sighed rather loudly upon hearing this. "Biggs, for once in your life, could you be patient? I have to check whether or not this ladder leads where I think it does."

"And we couldn't do that by _climbing down?_"

"Alright, but if we drop into the middle of a Shinra training exercise, you're taking the blame – and the bullets. You go first." Jessie didn't ordinarily like sending others into potential danger without backup, but some people, quite frankly, deserved it.

"You think I can't take on some Shinra troops by myself?" Biggs's pride had obviously been wounded.

"We both know you're more than the equal of anyone in Shinra, Biggs." Wedge said, trying to placate him. He knew as well as Jessie it was a bad idea for anyone but the Shinra to anger Biggs during a mission. Jessie was busy looking beyond the ladder - she was sure that there was light coming from beneath her, and she couldn't see or hear any Shinra troops. This did seem to be another entrance to the Sector 5 reactor. Meanwhile, Wedge continued speaking to Biggs. "But you can't defeat an army alone."

"You don't have to try to make me feel better, Wedge – I know that I have limits. I just resent you two thinking I'll definitely be killed if there are Shinra troops here."

Jessie interrupted him. "Biggs, Wedge, I'm as certain as I can be that this is the reactor. Do you want to go first, Biggs?" She was worried that he might consider her going down first as an indication that she didn't think he could deal with Shinra troops alone.

"Let's just go down in the order we're already in. It would take time to try and change in a space this narrow, and my ego isn't bruised enough to make Barrett and the others wait for." Jessie couldn't see Biggs's face, but she knew that he was smiling – without the slightest trace of happiness.

"Alright, here goes." Jessie climbed down the ladder as quickly as she could, trying not to see how far above the floor of the reactor she was. Since this entrance was near the base of the reactor, and their air duct was approximately level with the much higher main entrance, she was sure it was a good deal further than she wanted to think about.

Biggs emerged from the air duct soon after her, moving as quickly as possible. "Jessie, move a bit faster. I don't want to be on this ladder when Wedge starts climbing down. He'll probably fall and knock me off too."

"I heard that." Wedge's voice drifted from above them – it had already become somewhat muted. Jessie knew that the bottom of the ladder must be not far beneath her, but she still couldn't bring herself to look.

"Hey, we're almost at the bottom!" This came from Biggs, who followed up the exclamation by jumping off the ladder. Jessie was so shocked she risked taking a glance, just for a second – only to see the ground a few rungs beneath her, and Biggs looking at her with his eyebrows raised.

"You won't hurt yourself if you fall, don't worry. Wedge, on the other hand…" He raised his eyes to the top of the ladder, where Wedge was still trying to get out of the duct. "Hey! Wedge! You aren't that big – you made it through the tunnel, how difficult can it be to get out?" He seemed to have become much more cheerful now that it was apparent that the rest of AVALANCHE hadn't beaten them to the reactor.

From high above them, Jessie and Biggs could faintly hear Wedge. "When I finish this mission, I'm never getting in a space narrower than the headquarters again…" Grumbling to himself, he managed to reach the bottom of the ladder without too much difficulty, although he had to pause several times to steady himself.

"Good job, Wedge. Now, you stay here. Direct the others to the ladder – not the furthest away, the one that's closer." Wedge scowled slightly at Biggs's words. Biggs seemed to be unable to strike a balance between rude and patronising when talking to him. Wedge had the same problem with talking to Biggs, and usually went for both at the same time.

"I am capable of looking at a ladder myself, you know. You don't have to tell me how to do everything."

Biggs shrugged. "Alright, then." He began to stride towards the ladder, then turned back to say, "And you can probably lose the Shinra uniform now, they know we were disguised." Jessie did as he suggested, leaving the uniform in a pile on the ground – it wasn't exactly a great hiding place, but the only other alternative was to throw it off the edge of the platform, and the armour could easily kill someone if it fell the hundreds of metres to the slums without hitting anything.

There were two tunnels leading away from the room at the top of the ladder, one of which presumably led to the reactor core and the other back outside. Jessie guessed it connected with the third ladder she'd seen outside.

"You'd better stay here, to point them in the right direction." Biggs was looking almost longingly towards the reactor core.

"And where will you go? Closer to the core?" Biggs nodded distractedly, not saying anything. Jessie knew how much he'd wanted to set the bomb himself, but Cloud and Tifa had to gain some more experience. He couldn't have all the missions.

"Alright, then. I'll see you in a few minutes, if the others turn up when they should." Biggs didn't respond – he just crouched down and crawled through the tunnel. Jessie was beginning to worry about him. Biggs had never been the most sensible person she knew, but the longer he spent in AVALANCHE, the more reckless and bloodthirsty he seemed to become. It was only a matter of time until he went off on his own to try to blow up the entire Shinra building or something else equally stupid and impossible.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of Cloud, Tifa and, trying to reload his gun-arm without shooting off his other hand, their illustrious leader Barrett Wallace. They didn't appear to be hurt seriously, although Tifa was limping slightly and Cloud's right arm was bleeding rather badly – he'd attempt to bandage the wound with a strip of material torn from his shirt, but some blood was still dripping onto the floor.

"How did you go jumping from the train?" Jessie tried to address the question to the whole party, but it was Cloud she really wanted to hear from.

"Fairly well. Tifa landed slightly awkwardly – that's why she's limping – but Barrett and I were fine." In just a few days with AVALANCHE, Cloud had apparently become their spokesman. He was a natural leader, Jessie realised, and that would create problems with Barrett later. Barrett wasn't the sort of person who gave up power without a fight.

"Um… about the ID cards and the mess on the train. It was my fault." The other three looked at her curiously, seeming not to understand what she meant. Jessie took a deep breath and continued with her explanation. "I… tried really hard with these cards, tried to make them special."

"What do you mean by special?" Cloud had noticed that Jessie seemed to be looking at him when she was speaking, and wondered if he had had something to do with this. As far as he knew, he couldn't have done anything to the ID cards – he hadn't touched Jessie's computer, and he'd barely looked at the card this morning.

"If the cards had worked correctly, they would have identified you as high-ranking members of Shinra. You would have been able to get into the reactor just by flashing the IDs at the guards. I should have realised that there the sensor would have checked any card claiming you were in Shinra against the list of Shinra employees and been unable to find the names on the cards listed but… after everything that happened last night, I wanted to repay you somehow." Jessie had dropped the pretence of talking to the group by now.

Cloud, on the other hand, knew what Jessie was talking about. "Well… thank you. Better luck next time, I suppose." With that, he turned and led Tifa and Barrett into the reactor.

Jessie stood still, rooted to the spot for a moment. If she hadn't been scrutinising Cloud's face so intently, she might have been able to convince herself that he hadn't understood what she'd meant by making the ID card, but she saw the look on his face for maybe half a second before he spoke. He'd been embarrassed. Jessie mentally berated herself for doing this so soon. She'd only met him yesterday! How could she know how she felt about him, let alone expect him to feel the same? Yet she'd been an idiot and shown him. And Wedge said Biggs showed his emotions too much – if Wedge had witnessed this, he probably would have collapsed on the spot. But… this was better than nothing. For all that he'd tried to hide it behind that uncaring façade of his, he cared that she would be hurt by his rejection – he cared for the feelings of others. He wasn't the callous, emotionless being he painted himself as, and this gave Jessie hope. She might have to wait for a long time, but she knew that she had at least a chance of being loved by him eventually.

Biggs chose that moment to crawl through the tunnel connecting the two rooms. He looked surprised to see Jessie still there. "Hey, Jessie, you'd better get moving. Barrett and the rest have gone to plant the bomb. If you hang around here for much longer – well, you won't be able to, this place will be gone in ten minutes."

"You're right, Biggs. Wedge has probably left already. Let's head back to Sector 7."


	3. Hear My Words

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

Hear My Words

In the depths of the Sector 5 reactor, Biggs sprinted towards the ladder which would lead them out to the train station - hopefully before the bomb destroyed the reactor, taking him with it. He knew that, logically speaking, there was no way Barrett would have had time to plant the bomb yet, but still he felt compelled to move as fast as he could. Wedge had just began to climb the ladder – and he was moving much too slowly for Biggs's liking.

"He couldn't have waited for Jessie and I to go first, could he?" Biggs said, under his breath. He wasn't afraid of dying in the reactor, but if he had to, he wanted to go out in combat, not stuck halfway up a ladder because Wedge moved as quickly as grass grew on the Plate. He leapt onto the third rung of the ladder, not waiting to let Jessie go in front – he was at enough of a disadvantage as it was.

This mission had been almost too easy. Sure, there'd been some trouble on the train, but they managed to escape – he hadn't even gotten to fight! And after that, all he'd had to do was crawl through tunnels. More than anything else, he wanted to be the one planting the bomb – he'd never gotten the chance to destroy a reactor before. Ironic, really, that he joined with AVALANCHE when the Shinra had let the Gongaga reactor explode and killed half his townspeople with their negligence, and four years later here he was trying to destroy reactors for revenge.

Progress was slow behind Wedge, but they would make it. He didn't know how long the gap between the bomb being planted and its detonation was, but if it was as long as for yesterday's bomb, they should have time to spare. He still wanted to be sure, though. "Hey, Jessie. How long do we have?" Biggs spoke softly, although there was no real need – any guards in the reactor would be too busy chasing Barrett and the others to notice him.

"Well, that depends on how quickly they get to the top of the reactor. The bomb has a sensor in it which will tell it how far away Cloud and the rest are, and will activate when they are a certain distance away." Wedge had stopped climbing to catch his breath, giving Biggs a chance to continue questioning Jessie.

"And why didn't we use one of those bombs yesterday?" Biggs hated using bombs with timers – the time between the bomb being planted and detonated always had to be so short, otherwise the Shinra soldiers would find the bomb and defuse it, and in reactors it was too easy to be stuck fighting guards for long periods of time which you couldn't afford to lose. He'd assumed they were only using these bombs because they didn't have any others.

"I don't have an endless supply of them. They aren't too difficult to make, but constructing the sensors is incredibly time consuming – we're only using one today because of the three touchpads that have to be activated simultaneously in this reactor can take a while to work, so Barrett decided we needed one."

Biggs nodded, acknowledging Jessie's explanation, and continued to climb – Wedge had apparently caught his breath while Jessie and Biggs had been talking, and was almost at the top of the ladder now. As Biggs pulled himself up the ladder, he couldn't help but think about how far through the reactor the rest of AVALANCHE would be by now. They'd come out so near the base of the reactor, they would have planted the bomb already, and they'd be making their way towards the main entrance. They had time, but not much.

Biggs raised his head to tell Wedge to hurry. He knew that it had no effect besides irritating Wedge, but Biggs felt he had to do something to get them to move more quickly – that, and he enjoyed annoying Wedge. Even someone as dedicated to destroying Shinra as he was needed to relax and have a laugh – at Wedge's expense – once in a while. Admittedly, the other members of AVALANCHE thought defining 'once in a while' as 'once per sentence' was slightly unfair, but Biggs didn't let them affect his actions too much. In any case, he'd lost his chance this time – Wedge was already moving into the air duct. Determined not to let Wedge get too much of a lead on him, he began to haul himself up the ladder even more quickly than before.

A few minutes later, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie were all huddled together at the opposite end of the air duct, debating in hushed voices about where to go next. Wedge was making his opinions on the subject very clear. "We can't stay in here. It's far too close to the reactor – we'll be killed when it explodes."

"Wedge, if we go into the train tunnel, the Shinra guards will be sure to see us. They must know by now that we went into the reactor, and they'll be patrolling every centimetre of the sector." Biggs shot back. He didn't have any alternative, but he knew they'd be shot on sight if the soldiers saw them – and he didn't want to test their luck any further.

"What's your idea, then?" Wedge snapped. Biggs had obviously succeeded in irritating him earlier, and it looked as though he might have gone one step too far.

Jessie interrupted before the argument could get out of hand. "Look, you two, you're both right. I think that we're going to have to do something that the Shinra won't think of." Had Wedge and Biggs been able to see her face, they probably would have started backing off slowly at that moment. "Biggs, you said that the Shinra would be searching everywhere in this sector, didn't you?"

"Well, I think my version sounded much better, but essentially, yes. Why?" There was an edge in Jessie's voice which was making Biggs distinctly uncomfortable.

"Do you know where this sector ends and Sector 4 begins?"

"Give me a minute. If we headed north-east from the station, and continued in that direction through this duct, then it must be near the other end of this tunnel, past the security sen-" Biggs broke off in mid-sentence. "No. I'm not going through those security beams. It's suicide." He was fully prepared to give his life to defeat Shinra, but if he had no chance of surviving or doing significant damage to his enemy, he might as well stay where he was.

"I hate to say this, Jessie, but Biggs is right. Every Shinra soldier in Midgar will know our location in seconds. The message will go to their headquarters straight away, and whoever it is that's in charge of the troops" – the Shinra always kept quiet about exactly who was responsible for what in their company – "will relay the message to them via their radios – and that's only for the soldiers that don't hear the siren." Wedge was never happy about having to tell Jessie that a plan of hers wouldn't work, but he was usually even less happy about having to walk into a death trap.

"That's why we wait until just before the rector explodes. A few seconds after that alert, every soldier will be called to the reactor to guard the exits before the bombers can escape. We should be able to avoid much attention by the guards. After all, what's more important to them – an alert from a security sensor which is constantly detecting animals and soldiers who are careless about keeping their ID cards up to date, or the destruction of one of Midgar's seven remaining supplies of power and the death of hundreds of other guards?" Sometimes, Jessie's ability to think like her enemy scared Biggs and Wedge –who still had more questions for her, in any event.

"Just two more things, Jessie." For once, Biggs let Wedge speak for him – he wouldn't let himself waste time on a mission just to score a point over Wedge, fun though that would have been. "One: when the reactor is going to explode? And two: where, exactly, are we going after we get past the sensor?"

"Well, to answer your first question – I'd say very soon. If it takes them approximately the same time as it did yesterday - half a minute, at most. And to answer your second question – we'll be able to find a train. Any questions?"

"Are you planning to use the same IDs as before? I mean, they did set off the security alert on the other train." Wedge was apparently no happier than Biggs about this phase of the plan.

"No, I'm not. I kept the IDs we used yesterday – it's dangerous to use the same ones too often, in case the Shinra connect someone using these IDs with a reactor exploding on the same day, but we don't have a choice. Anything else?"

Biggs muttered, "Could you have come up with a more dangerous plan if you'd tried?" but otherwise everyone was silent.

"Well, let's get going, then!"

Wedge burst out of the tunnel to the best of his abilities. Unfortunately, this meant that he climbed out very slowly and then spent ten seconds straightening up, but at least he was trying to look the part. After that anti-climax, Biggs felt there wasn't much he could do to remedy the hopelessly non-heroic mood of their escape, so he simply crawled out of the air duct and stood up, shooting angry glares at Wedge.

Biggs heard Jessie's voice from behind him. "Hurry! The reactor will be gone any second now!" Wedge wasn't staying around to argue – he'd already started running – and Biggs wasn't going to let Wedge look better than him when anyone else was around. He took a few steps forward, but Wedge had gotten there first.

The high-pitch electronic scream of the sensor sent shivers through Biggs, but he knew he had to keep moving, and move he did. He ran past the sensor beams, trying to listen for the reactor's explosion amidst the sound of the alarm, but he heard nothing. Jessie was running next to him, barely able to keep pace, and Wedge was lagging some way behind. Biggs cursed Tifa's cooking mentally – if it wasn't so delicious, they might be able to complete a mission without five near-death experiences because Wedge was so slow. Biggs could see the end of the tunnel now – and, more importantly, a train in the distance. Behind him, he heard the enraged cries of the Shinra soldiers and the ceaseless shrill of the security sensor.

Biggs ran out of the tunnel into sunlight, with Jessie beside him and Wedge, straining with every bit of strength in him to keep up with the others, a short way behind. He was almost blinded by the sudden glare – living under the Plate it was so easy to forget about the Sun's light. He knew that he had to get away from the railway line, and that the station was to his left. Making a sharp turn, Biggs plunged half-blindly down alleyways, hoping desperately that Jessie and Wedge were following him. The sounds of pursuit were drawing nearer; the soldiers must be nearly on top of him –

The sound of the reactor exploding tore through the streets. Biggs could almost feel it as a physical force trying to knock him off his feet. Craning his neck, he could just see the column of fire burn above the buildings of the Plate momentarily, before it spread to light those near the reactor. Biggs realized then that Wedge was standing at the end of the street, gazing at the display in awe, and that Jessie was crouched next to him.

"Alright, Cloud and the others weren't as near to the exit as I thought they would be, but in a way, that helps their escape - and ours." Biggs was always astounded by Jessie's ability to go from fleeing soldiers to analyzing the success of the mission in almost no time, and today she seemed determined to outdo herself. "The Shinra troops are moving back towards the reactor, so we will be able to escape easily, but there should be enough of a time gap between the others leaving the reactor and the guards arriving for them to get a good head start."

Wedge spoke quietly – Biggs suspected the explosion had shaken him more than he would care to admit. "Right as always, Jessie, but we should still leave here as soon as possible. How close are we to the Sector 4 station?"

Biggs tried to inject some cheerfulness into his voice, but he knew it sounded forced. Even he, by far the most emotionally detached of the AVALANCHERs, felt a twinge of guilt at the thought of how many must have died in that explosion. "Not far from here. If we head north for a while and then turn to the west, we should come across the railway line not far from the station."

The three rebels snuck through the streets, noticed by nobody. This had more to do with all the inhabitants of Midgar being inside their homes watching for an update on the situation from Shinra News than their ability to move sneakily, but the upshot was that they got to the station in a few minutes without difficulty. This was, as Wedge pointed out, the first thing they'd done that day which didn't involve enough difficulty to sink the Shinra's entire fleet.

In a shadowy corner of the station, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge discussed the situation they found themselves in. "How long will it be until the next train arrives?" Biggs asked impatiently. Despite years of being lectured by Jessie, he refused to believe that patience could sometimes be useful.

"Any minute now, I think. The train that was about to come through the tunnel as we escaped would have stopped here about ten minutes ago, and trains are scheduled to come through stations about that often." Jessie looked thoughtful as she said this. "Wedge, did you see what happened to that train?"

Wedge nodded. "It came within about ten seconds of hitting me, but I got off the track just in time. Judging by the screams, some of the soldiers weren't so lucky." Biggs grinned upon hearing this, but Wedge's voice was oddly flat. He always sounded like that after missions, as though he was trying to stop thinking about what had just happened. Biggs would never understand why he wasn't at least slightly happy – they'd struck another blow against Shinra and gotten out with their lives, what was there to complain about? He was about to tell Wedge this, but he was interrupted by the arrival of the train.

As one, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge rose to their feet, trying to be appropriately fast in walking to the train – not so fast that they seemed to be escaping, but not so slowly that it seemed like an act. After all, a reactor had just exploded; most people would want to leave this area quickly. A thought struck Biggs. "The new IDs!" he hissed. "The ones that set off the alarm in the other train! Throw them away!"

Jessie looked at him strangely. "I left mine in the train tunnel, and I think Wedge dropped his off the edge of that platform in the reactor." Wedge nodded at her. "Didn't you leave yours somewhere?" Wedge smiled slightly as Jessie spoke, sensing that his opportunity to embarrass Biggs had finally arrived.

"Well, you could have asked me earlier." Biggs muttered, blushing slightly. In one fluid movement, he dropped his ID onto the tracks and opened the train door, walking casually into the carriage. He sat down on the seat nearest to the door – just in case something went wrong. Jessie sat next to Biggs and motioned to Wedge to join them with a wave of her hand – there was no point in them splitting up now, the passengers had all seen them come in together. Wedge looked as though he was about to make a comment about the ID cards, but Jessie cut him off.

"This train goes around Midgar anti-clockwise, so we'll arrive at the station in the Sector 7 slums in about half an hour." Her voice was just louder than a whisper, and none of the other passengers seemed to be listening. "When we arrive at the station, we'll-"

Jessie's plan was interrupted by the voice of the driver over the loudspeaker. "Passengers, your attention please. Due to the bombing of the Sector 5 reactor, this will be the last train traveling from the Plate to the slums until further security measures can be implemented. That is all. Thank you."

"This is going to make future missions rather difficult…" Wedge trailed off at one look at Biggs's face. "Biggs – stop it! Stop smiling!"

"Well, at least they're paying attention to us now." Biggs was barely able to restrain himself from laughing aloud. "This has made them sit up and notice what's going on!" His attention drifted from Wedge and Jessie, although he was aware they were still talking. He could hear snatches of conversations from the other passengers, but paid no attention, lost in his triumphant thoughts – until one phrase hit him like a force field.

" - those terrorist bastards, killing everyone who doesn't agree with them – " Biggs's smile turned to a scow in a heartbeat, and he turned his face to the window to hide his expression from the other passengers. Three years ago, when AVALANCHE first became infamous among the inhabitants of Midgar, he decided to keep count of the number of good things and the number of bad things he heard about the group from the citizens of Midgar everyday – to see if public opinion of AVALANCHE was improving. He stopped two weeks later when Barrett wounded three customers after being given that day's figures. The situation hadn't improved much since then.

They were all cowards, he'd decided. They were too scared too stand up for themselves against the Shinra, and when someone else did it for them, those wimps called them terrorists and traitors! He wanted to be able to talk to every inhabitant of Midgar for just five minutes, to make them listen to his words so he could explain. Yes, people were dying in their attacks. But if they didn't try to hurt Shinra, the Planet would run out of Mako energy and die – and every one of them would do the same. If they weren't prepared to force the Shinra from power – he knew that they could do so: for every soldier in the army, there were five civilians, most of whom hated the dictatorship they lived under but wouldn't make the effort to change it – then they should shut up and let AVALANCHE get on with it. But they never would do as he said, even if Biggs could talk to them all. They were too busy worshipping at the alter of peace at any cost - even their freedom – to hear him.

"Biggs, have you heard anything we've said in the last five minutes?" Wedge demanded. Biggs looked at his companions, startled out of his reverie.

"I'm sorry – I was just thinking. Thinking about what you said before, Wedge: success isn't going to come easily to us, with things as they are now."


	4. The Calm

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

The Calm

Wedge looked quizzically at Biggs. After delivering his pronunciation of agreement with Wedge, he'd started staring out of the train window determinedly, as though it were a very delicate task which required his full attention. Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he be happy that the mission was successful – as he had been two minutes ago? Wedge decided not to try to talk to Biggs. He'd spent hours dealing with him on this mission; he wasn't going to get concerned about this sudden moodiness.

Wedge turned to Jessie, as though trying to stop himself from thinking about Biggs. "What do you think happened to Barrett and the others?" he asked, trying to strike a balance between letting Biggs hear him and letting the rest of the train in on the conversation. This, apparently, had been the wrong question to ask. Jessie was silent for a long moment, and when she finally spoke, did so almost too softly for Wedge to hear.

"I don't know. They may just have escaped attention from the guards, but even so, how would they be able to get back to the hideout? They don't have their old IDs with them, so they can't take a train, and as for walking back – well, it's just possible, if they manage to find a way to the slums very quickly. But there aren't many paths between here and Sector 7 which aren't heavily patrolled." The despair in Jessie's voice amazed Wedge: after all, they'd been in worse situations than this before, and Jessie was always – not quite optimistic, but she had never been so openly distressed by the thought of their allies being in a situation like Barrett, Cloud and Tifa were in now.

Whatever the reason, Wedge sensed that his interference wouldn't be appreciated by Jessie. She was a fairly solitary person, she preferred to work through her problems by herself – and if Jessie wanted Wedge's advice, he knew she'd ask for it. In the faces of his allies' behaviour, Wedge felt oddly uncomfortable. He could calm down Biggs when he was in the grip of one of his fits of anger (or, as Wedge called them, 'temper tantrums'), he could comfort Jessie when she was feeling guilty about the group's actions, on occasion he even tried to help Tifa in keeping Barrett composed – or at least not homicidal – when members of Shinra were around. In the last few years Wedge had, without realizing it, become AVALANCHE's unofficial counsellor. But he was never sure how to help when people didn't want to talk.

Wedge leant back in his seat, surreptitiously watching the other passengers. They didn't appear to have noticed anything suspicious about the AVALANCHERs behaviour, but all the same, he was glad they were getting off the train soon. Anybody who had left Sector 5 since the bombing would be under scrutiny by the Shinra within the next few hours, and to stay on this train much longer would be extremely dangerous. The train was almost at the level of the slums – it had been gradually descending throughout the trip – and they were slowing to a halt at the Sector 2 station.

Biggs looked towards the few people boarding the train, one of whom was a Shinra guard. He leant towards Wedge and whispered, "They've started the checks already." Wedge nodded, not daring to make any noise. He looked out the window at the depressing landscape of the slums, hoping to avoid notice. The guard looked around the carriage for several seconds and then moved towards the back of the train. He was obviously expecting the terrorists to be hiding somewhere, if they were on the train at all.

Wedge kept his gaze fixed on the slums as the train began to move again. Sector 2 was hardly distinguishable from Sector 7 – the crumbling structures that passed for houses in this place were slightly different, of course, but there were still the piles of junk which no one bothered to sort through, the potholes in the middle of the streets, the look of hopelessness on the faces of the people there. He'd thought that Junon had been ruined when the Shinra moved in – that was why he'd joined AVALANCHE in the first place – but the slums of Midgar made Lower Junon look like Costa del Sol. Although Junon had probably degenerated since he was last there, the best part of two years ago. It had gotten too difficult to leave Midgar for him after that – the background checks were too rigorous for him not to look highly suspicious. He had been officially unemployed for the last four years, and he knew he didn't look it.

Wedge watched Shinra guard march through the train out of the corner of his eye, demanding to see the IDs of passengers. He knew that the soldier wasn't interested in catching the terrorists – he probably honestly couldn't have cared less what happened to Shinra, as long as he had a job. Wedge could understand his apparent avoidance of himself, Jessie and Biggs – they looked dangerous, and the soldier didn't seem to be in a hurry to commit suicide for Shinra. Wedge had long ago realized the reason that they'd lived as long as they had was the complete lack of work ethic among Shinra employees.

Trying to keep an eye on the guard without staring and to whisper without looking suspicious – a difficult feat of co-ordination at the best of times – Jessie muttered to Wedge, "We're getting near Sector 8. I think we should get off now, so we don't give out clues to the location of the hideout."

"Good idea, Jessie. Let's spilt up when we get off the train and meet – near the Sector 7 Plate Support?" Jessie and Biggs both nodded in response. Most of Sector 7 had seen them meeting there, so there wasn't much point trying to be secretive about their movements beyond that point.

"Well, the train's slowing down; I'll stand at this carriages' door now. You two can go to different carriages and get out in a minute." Standing up as casually as he could, Wedge strode towards the exit, mentally planning his route back to the bar. Jessie and Biggs spilt up a few seconds later, Jessie moving to the front of the train and Biggs to the back. As the train came to a halt, the guard looked at him momentarily, as though he was considering stopping Wedge but then thought better of it.

Wedge opened the door slowly, grateful for being able to wait until the train stopped this time. He walked almost automatically, still deep in thought. If the layout of Sector 8 was similar to that of Sector 7, he should walk west from the station until he reached a crossroads between the station and the residential area. From there, he only had to go south until he wandered into the Plate Support. The difficulty would be getting past the Shinra soldiers guarding the road between the two sectors. Luckily, the ones sent down here were usually the dregs of Shinra's army – some of the least professional people he'd ever met. Wedge still had the stun grenade Barrett had given him a few weeks ago, and now seemed to be a good time to use it.

He knelt down behind one of the piles of useless rubbish that the slums seemed to grow in place of plants. Grasping the grenade in his right hand, he listened to the soldiers chattering. Wedge didn't really want to kill them, just distract them for a few minutes. If he threw in the direction of the Plate Support, they would hopefully run right past him…

Wedge pulled out the safety pin and threw the grenade towards the tower as hard as he could. In theory, he knew that he was supposed to wait for a few seconds when he was throwing it somewhere so close, but he couldn't stand to hold something which would blow up so soon any longer than was absolutely necessary. The soldiers had evidently noticed some movement – they'd stopped talking, and Wedge thought he could hear their footsteps as they moved closer. Then…

Wedge thought for a moment that he had been blinded by the flash, but after a moment passed realized that partial deafening due to the blast was more likely. Either way, he didn't have time to think, he had to get past the roadblock while the soldiers were still disoriented. He crawled forwards and to the left, staying next to the rubbish pile the whole time. Despite– hopefully temporary – effect that the explosion had had on his ears, he could still dimly hear the confused shouts of the soldiers. Rising to his feet, he began to sprint along the road, unnoticed by the soldiers, and ran forwards until his feet refused to carry him any longer. This wasn't quite to the Plate Support, but it was well within the boundaries of Sector 7. Falling to his knees, he wondered what had happened to Biggs and Jessie, whether they'd found a safer route or just decided to stay on the train until it reached the Sector 7 station.

A few moments later, Wedge stood wearily and began to walk forwards again. He could see the fence around the Plate Support in the distance, and knew that he'd survived another day with AVALANCHE. At this rate, he wasn't sure how many he'd more last for, but today at least was over. Now he could see Jessie and Biggs coming around the tower to meet him, and he tried to move more quickly, but to no avail. Wedge was exhausted – he simply had no talent for sneaking around reactors and distracting soldiers.

Jessie reached him first, and put an arm around his shoulders to steady him. "It's alright, Jessie, I'm not that tired." This wasn't strictly true, and Wedge knew it, but there was a limit to how weak he was prepared to seem around the others. "Come on, we've nearly made it."

The three AVALANCHERs walked back to the hideout in near silence, not even attempting to hide any more. There was no need: all of Midgar knew about the bombing, and the streets of the slums hadn't been as chaotic before in the four years Wedge had lived there. No one would notice them. The bar was crowded, as always – nothing short of their own deaths would keep some of the inhabitants of Sector 7 away from the place. Biggs looked tempted to scare everyone out in an imitation of Barrett last night – Wedge had known that giving Biggs a gun was a bad idea – but he seemed to think better of it when he saw Marlene behind the counter. He always tried to moderate his behaviour around her, although Wedge thought that with Barrett for a father Marlene's chance of having a childhood without seeing violence was well into negative numbers by now.

Wedge smiled at Marlene and walked up to the counter. "Are you alright serving everyone?" He knew that he'd never get her to stop, since her father had asked her to, but he still felt guilty having her serve when adults were around. Marlene nodded – she still didn't like speaking to anyone besides Barrett and Tifa much. Wedge looked around the bar and decided that she'd manage – the customers were all regulars who knew Marlene, and they also knew that Barrett would find out if they tried to leave without paying. It wasn't safe to go down to the hideout proper with all the customers around, but he knew that Barrett and the others would show up and get them out soon enough.

Wedge sat down at a table in the corner of the room, gesturing for Biggs and Jessie to join him. He lent in to begin discussing what they should do if the other AVALANCHERs didn't arrive soon, when he was interrupted by the door being swung open violently. Barrett stormed in, closely followed by Tifa. The customers took one look at Barrett's face and fled the bar as quickly as they could. Without a word to any of them, Barrett smashed the button which operated the makeshift elevator to the hideout, all but destroying it in the process.

"What's wrong with Barrett? And where's Cloud?" Jessie asked Tifa, who looked miserable. Evidently something had gone horribly wrong during the bombing.

"Well, the Shinra President showed up at the reactor –" Tifa's explanation was interrupted by Biggs.

"Did you kill him?" Biggs's enthusiasm seemed to be back to the level it had been at during their escape.

"No, because he sent a robot to attack us – not to mention the entire squad of soldiers that were blocking the exits. Besides, Barrett wanted to talk to him first." Wedge wasn't sure that he wanted to know what Barrett had said. "We defeated the robot, but the President was long gone by then. That's one reason why Barrett is angry. And the other reason also answers your second question, Jessie: when the robot exploded, it took out a large section of the walkway. Cloud was standing on that particular part – he held on for a little while, but he fell in the end. And from the Plate to the slums is a long way to fall."


	5. Whistling in the Dark

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

(Author's Note: This will be the last new chapter for several weeks, as I will be on holiday without long periods of access to a computer. Thank you for reading, and JetNoir and Enlightenment of the Truth, thank you very much for your reviews.)

Whistling in the Dark

Jessie studied Tifa carefully, trying to distance herself from what she had just heard. While Tifa's voice was steady and her words were calm, the rigid way in which she stood and the slight shaking of her hands suggested that she was about to either attempt to severely injure someone or collapse in tears - but Jessie knew that Tifa had too much self-control to allow herself to break down in front of them. Trying to speak as casually as she could, Jessie asked, "Do you think that there's any chance that he survived?" It seemed that Jessie's voice had betrayed her emotions despite her best efforts: Biggs looked at her sympathetically – Biggs, who barely knew what the word 'compassion' meant – and Wedge put an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her.

"It's possible," Tifa replied softly. "Even when Cloud was a child, he was tough, and after joining SOLDIER – well, you saw for yourself at the reactor yesterday. If anyone can survive that fall, Cloud can." This wasn't quite the unconditional affirmation that Jessie had been hoping for, but it was something to hold onto.

"Whatever happened to Cloud, we can't do anything by worrying about it. Let's go downstairs and hear what Barrett has to say." Jessie was aware that Biggs was, in his practical and detached way, trying to calm her, but Biggs's rather unique form of support was not helpful in situations like this. She had to admit that he was right, but at that moment she wasn't capable of being entirely logical and emotionally detached from the situation.

"Alright, then." Jessie was surprised to find that her own voice had become steady so quickly. "I'd like to see the news, anyway." She walked to the elevator, followed first by Wedge and then by Tifa, who had grabbed Marlene on her way. Biggs almost always climbed down, just to show Barrett that he wasn't the only tough one in AVALANCHE. That contest was almost as old as – although considerably more one-sided than - Biggs and Wedge's game of one-upmanship in AVALANCHE's missions, and that contest had started the day after the two of them met.

Barrett was once again attempting to transport the hideout's punching bag into another dimension. Biggs had once asked Barrett why someone who fought with a gun needed to be able to fight in hand-to-hand combat. Barrett had proceeded to demonstrate the advantages on him, and Biggs had never challenged his right to use of the punching bag whenever he wanted since. He usually settled for sitting at the table, looking at Barrett resentfully. The amount of power play that could go on in a group of AVALANCHE's size amazed Jessie.

Upon the entrance of Jessie and the others into the hideout, Barrett paused to look at them. Jessie had hardly ever seen him so angry, and Barrett was in a more or less constant state of anger. After four years of being around him, Jessie knew when it was better – both for the harmony of the group and for her health – to stay out of Barrett's way. He'd calm down enough to talk in a manner which wouldn't cause permanent damage to their ears in a few minutes.

In the meantime, Jessie turned on the television, knowing that nothing but the bombing would be talked about for hours – days, perhaps. The channel didn't matter – the concept of 'independent news services' had ended around the same time as the Wutai-Midgar War. Television had been Shinra propaganda for the past fifteen years. It wasn't difficult for Jessie to guess what would be said, but seeing the havoc caused by the bombing would distract her, at any rate. Biggs, Wedge and Tifa were now seated at the table, talking quietly and giving the television cursory glances from time to time. Marlene was sitting on Tifa's lap, watching her father in awe.

"… President Shinra has promised that all forces available will be directed towards finding and destroying these terrorists…" The reporter didn't look old enough to be out of school. He probably didn't remember a time when Shinra hadn't been in power. It was a strange thought, that in a few years the first generation born and raised under the dictatorship of Shinra would be running the world. AVALANCHE's prospects seemed rather grim when that happened – at the moment, most people were willing to, if not aid them, at least not reveal their existence to the government. The same couldn't be expected of people who had grown up hearing the words of Shinra everywhere they went.

"… the President himself was at the reactor today, but was unable to stop the terrorists for fear of forcing soldiers to remain in the reactor…"

Jessie heard Barrett's snort over the drone of the reporter's voice. "Tryin' to save the soldiers? The president don't care 'bout nobody but the president. An' people believe this..." He resumed his impassioned attack on the punching bag.

Biggs was smiling in a rather unsettling way, probably related to the footage of the explosion now being shown. "It's amazing how explosive Mako is. You'd think someone would realise that it might not be safe to use it as a power source. How many reactors have blown up in the last five years?"

"Not counting the ones we've bombed? Two. Gongaga and North Corel." Jessie had always thought of Wedge as a sensible man, but anyone who brought up the North Corel reactor when Barrett was in a bad mood couldn't be entirely sane.

Biggs sighed noisily. "I knew that, Wedge."

"Well, it isn't my fault if you don't want the answer to questions –" Wedge was interrupted by Barrett, who had decided to give the punching bag some rest, bringing his fist down on the table. It didn't fall apart, but after four years of belonging to AVALANCHE it was definitely looking less sturdy than when it was purchased. Wedge edged his chair away from Barrett slightly.

"Stop arguin'! We've gotta decide what to do next." Barrett sounded irritated, but evidently the punching bag had done its work in calming him – irritation was a vast improvement over homicidal anger. He picked up Marlene and seated himself at the table. Wedge relaxed somewhat, but he still appeared to be preparing to run at any moment.

"You see, when we were getting back from the reactor –" Tifa's explanation was interrupted by Wedge.

"How did you get back, anyway?"

"We headed towards the Shinra building. There are a lot of entrances to train tunnels which are no longer in use near it. Now, can I get on with the story? As I was saying, we came across a man who was a member of Shinra -" It was Biggs's turn to interrupt.

"How can you tell? There isn't a uniform for the higher-ups."

"He'd dropped his ID card. He was just turning around to pick it up, actually, when Barrett shoved his gun arm in the man's face." Barrett grinned at this and began to polish the weapon. "Anyway, the man told us that he worked for Don Corneo, and that the Shinra were planning something big in the next few days to finish off AVALANCHE. He didn't seem to know much about it, so I said told Barrett that I should go to Corneo's mansion to see what I can find out."

"An' I said no. It's too dangerous, Tifa. The place will be crawlin' with guards – how are you gonna get in?" Barrett looked as though he had a fairly good idea of how Tifa would get in, and wasn't happy with it in the slightest. Neither was Jessie, for that matter. She'd grown up not far from Wall Street, and for years the entire city had known what the Don got up to in his rather copious amounts of spare time. It appeared that very few people in Shinra actually worked.

"Have you heard about the Don's efforts to find a wife?" Tifa asked. Jessie had been hoping that she was mistaken about Tifa's plan. Sometimes being right could be very upsetting.

"Is there anyone in Midgar who hasn't? Hey, I just thought of something..." Biggs's sentence trailed off.

"Well, Biggs, better make a note in your diary, so in future you can look back on this momentous triumph of your brain." Wedge's comment went unnoticed by Biggs, who was still contemplating.

"If the Don has being doing his wife-finding exercises since I arrived in Midgar four years ago, at the earliest... Jessie, do you know how long he's been looking?"

"Five years, perhaps? I heard about it not long before I joined AVALANCHE, actually, but I wasn't exactly the first person to find out. But this three women a day thing is a fairly recent development, he used to be much more restrained. It couldn't be more than about six months ago that it started."

"Alright, three women a night, thirty days a month, for six months..." Wedge began to move towards the elevator during Biggs's mental calculation, clearly struggling to refrain from telling them he'd have time to get a drink before any major development. No one was watching him, so he was forced to let another insult to Biggs go unnoticed.

"That's five hundred and forty women! There can't be many more than that in Midgar." Biggs sounded surprised by this, to Jessie's amazement.

"Think about it, Biggs. Do you know how rich the Don is? There aren't many women in the slums who wouldn't do anything for the chance of marrying a man with that kind of money." Jessie liked to think that she still retained some idealism in her fight against Shinra, but growing up in the Midgar slums had produced realism in her attitude to the rest of life – life had a nasty tendency of doing that to all the slums' inhabitants.

"Well, that means that I shouldn't have too much trouble getting in – not much competition." Tifa managed to sound pleased about this. "And before you say anything, Barrett, I am going. There's no other way of finding out what the Shinra will do next."

Barrett grumbled, but realised that he'd lost and that further argument would be futile. "Well, I'm comin' too; to make sure nothin' goes wrong." He didn't appear to believe that this tactic would work – his tone was resigned – but Jessie knew that he would feel guilty if he didn't try to give Tifa whatever help she would allow him to.

"No, you're not. There's no way that you can get into the mansion, and I can defend myself getting there." Tifa looked as though she would rather enjoy the chance to demonstrate this, but Barrett knew when he had lost an argument.

"What will you do if he doesn't choose you?" Wedge questioned. This possibility had not occurred to Jessie – she'd been too concerned about what would happen after Tifa was chosen.

"I've thought about that, and if it happens I suppose I'll just have to fight my way to the Don. A few guards won't be too difficult to handle, and I doubt that they'll be expecting anything much to happen after the Don's made his choice." Tifa sounded as though she'd been rehearsing this plan mentally for a considerable time – the words seemed to come without her thinking about them.

Barrett nodded reluctantly. "Jus' be careful. I don't trust Corneo."

"Barrett... what are we going to do about Cloud?" asked Jessie. She knew Barrett didn't care for mercenaries in general and that Cloud had done nothing to endear himself to Barrett, but surely he wouldn't let someone as strong as Cloud disappear without even trying to look for him.

"If he's alive, he'll be findin' his own way back by now. Unless he's gonna desert us." Barrett appeared to believe that this was a distinct possibility – he had a firm belief that no one could ever really _want_ to leave SOLDIER. They had almost as much power as anyone Shinra politician short of the President, and the type of people who made it to the top of the Shinra army weren't the type who relinquished power happily.

"Shouldn't someone go to Sector 5 anyway, just to look for him? That's where he would have landed, and we could walk there easily." Jessie knew Barrett wouldn't want to have AVALANCHE spilt up more than it had to be, but they didn't have any missions planned for days – it couldn't possibly hurt.

"I'm sorry, Jessie, but it's not safe. It's too late to be goin' anywhere today, and if Tifa's gonna be in Sector 6 tomorrow, we've gotta stay at the hideout. If he ain't back in two days, then you can look." Barrett said wearily.

"Alright, then. So, what have we got in the way of missions coming up?" Biggs could always be replied upon to bring the conversation back to fighting Shinra – the tireless determination with which they dedicated themselves to bringing down the government was one of the few characteristics he and Barrett shared.

"Well, most of 'em depended on havin' Cloud around. We'll have to change the plans a bit, but I think we've got a chance at hittin' the Shinra headquarters in a few weeks." Barrett had been planning this attack for a long time, but he hadn't thought that they would be able to pull it off without another strong fighter. Apparently he'd grown tired of waiting. "If we can jus' get some more bombs, we can set 'em off at the front entrance, then sneak around the back. What do you think, Jessie?"

"It'll be difficult, but far from impossible. Grenades are easy to get – they aren't exactly the bombs we've been using the reactors, but they'll function just as well as a distraction, not to mention being cheaper. The main problems will be getting to the building without being noticed, and the possibility that Shinra will realise that it's a distraction and send troops to every entrance." Jessie was on familiar ground here, refining the sometimes unrealistic plans of the rest of AVALANCHE – in some ways, she was the most practical member of the group.

"Well, we can use the train tunnels Tifa was talking about earlier. There's probably an entrance to one near the train graveyard – I'm pretty sure that someone told me that the original Sector 7 station was on the other side of the graveyard to the present one, and it would have to connect with other tunnels at some point." Wedge's knowledge of the geography of Midgar was astounding, considering he'd only been there four years – he taught Jessie something new on a regular basis, and she'd lived in Midgar all her life.

"We can check that in a few days. Now, what should we do about making sure the guards fall for the distraction?" Life felt as though it was finally returning to normal for Jessie – or at least what passed for normal in AVALANCHE. She was where she belonged in their fight – being, along with Wedge, the brains behind the destruction – and although Cloud wasn't there, she knew that she would see him again soon.


	6. The City of Dis

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

(Author's Note: I apologise for having taken much longer to finish the chapter than I had said I would. I though that with school starting again, I would have to forget about fanfiction for a few weeks – and the weeks turned into months, of course. Trouble (entirely my own fault) experienced in logging in also contributed to the delay. Thank you for reading.)

The City of Dis

Biggs's glaze drifted aimlessly around the small room. The discussion of the attack on the Shinra Headquarters had been raging for an hour and was no closer to resolution than when it had started. Wedge and Jessie were currently immersed in a very technical discussion of the various methods of disabling security cameras while avoiding the attention of Shinra patrols. Tifa had reopened the bar – if she hadn't, the door would have been beaten down within a few minutes – and taken Marlene, who had been getting bored, upstairs with her. Barrett was calculating the amount of money which would be required to purchase the supplies that would be used in the prospective attack - he didn't look pleased with the results.

" - but that still leaves the question of the cameras in the Shinra building – they're constantly watched, you won't be able to put other footage in without the gap being noticed – " Wedge sounded exhausted, but Biggs knew that he never gave up on an argument he had any chance of winning. Jessie was usually less stubborn, but tonight she seemed determined to have her opinion heard.

"We don't have an alternative, it's impossible to hide from the cameras and the guards, and we'd be noticed if we tried to take out the guards first. We'll just have to take our chances with the camera, I'm willing to bet that whoever monitors the footage doesn't pay much attention – there's nothing to monitor. False alarms are news now." Biggs shook his head. Those two should have been debaters, not warriors. They were effective enough once they stopped talking, but so were the soldiers near the Plate Support, and he'd been amusing himself for weeks by seeing how far along the street they guarded he could walk without being noticed. His record was to the end of it and halfway back.

"Look, you two, stop arguing." Biggs was slightly surprised to hear his own voice after listening to Jessie and Wedge for an hour. "There's no point, we'll never be able to use any of your plans with the number of members we have. I say that we should worry about recruiting before we get worked up about bombs and security cameras."

Wedge turned to face him, grateful for a way out which didn't involve him conceding defeat. "Biggs has a point this time. Let's all get some rest now – we'll have to be up early to farewell Tifa."

"Not going to eat anything first?" Taunting Wedge about his weight had been effective in the first few months, but over the previous two years he'd grown more and more inclined towards laughing Biggs's jokes off. They'd both gotten rather lazy with their insults – after four years of living together, almost anyone two people's repertoires will be exhausted.

"Tifa's too busy with customers tonight. I don't want to make trouble for her – and I don't think I even have the energy to eat. I'll see you all in the morning." Wedge walked to his corner of the room – usually three of the AVALANCHERs slept in the hideout and two in the main room. It was usually crowded but comfortable enough - although staying in the training hall opposite the bar if you were sharing with Barrett and Wedge was an acceptable practice.

Jessie scrutinised the roster which was originally pinned to the wall, but had since been crumpled into a ball and thrown in a corner numerous times, and now sat on the table under a glass. "It's Tifa and Biggs's turn to sleep upstairs tonight," she said, looking rather unhappily at her roommates. "I'll just sleep on the table, shall I?"

"Why don't we try movin' the table?" Barrett had yet to concede that it was impossible for everyone to sleep in the hideout – he felt it was much more secure than separating them when they were vulnerable, although the chances of the bar being attacked when no one knew it was their hideout seemed fairly slim.

"We've tried that already, Barrett." Jessie replied. "We can't move it far enough to make any difference without either blocking the elevator or damaging the computer. And I'm not going to take the computer upstairs, either. It'd be damaged be the customers."

Biggs walked over to the elevator, leaving the others behind to argue some more. He pulled himself up the wall rather awkwardly, and he thought he could hear Barrett trying to suppress laughter. Scowling, he reached the bar, where Tifa was trying to convince a particularly stubborn customer to leave.

"Look, it's half an hour past our closing time already, and we're practically out of – well, everything. Why don't you just go home now?" she said, straining to sound polite.

"Come on, Tifa, I'll throw him out. You know Johnny's hard enough to deal with even when he's sober. No point talking to him when he's in this state." Biggs proceeded to pull Johnny off his stool, attempt to sling him over his shoulder the way he'd seen Barrett throw people – and felt Barrett throw him – finally give up and drag Johnny out the door and onto the stairs outside. He turned back just in time to see the horrified look on Tifa's face.

"Biggs, you know how much Johnny helped me when I first arrived in Midgar. I'd probably be dead if he hadn't been around. Not to mention the fact that he's our best customer!" Biggs couldn't help smiling at this. Nothing would keep Johnny away from the nearest source of alcohol for more than a few hours, and Tifa knew it.

"Johnny would forgive you for throwing him off the top of the Shinra headquarters, Tifa; I wouldn't worry about me throwing him out of here." Biggs wasn't the most tactful person on the Planet, but even he realised mentioning Johnny's drinking was a bad idea.

"Even if that was true, you still can't treat customers like that. I have a professional reputation to worry about." Tifa said, sounding slightly calmer.

"This is Sector 7, you know – it'd be worse for your professional reputation if people weren't kicked out violently sometimes. No-one would think you were serious about bartending." Tired of the argument, Biggs continued speaking. "Anyway, I for one am going to sleep, right now. And you want to be awake for the Don, don't you?" Without giving her a chance to reply, he grabbed a blanket from the shelf at the back of the room, dropped it on the floor, lay down on it and pretended to have fallen asleep immediately.

Tifa sighed and headed out the door of the bar, turning off the lights on the way. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for a long time that night - the day's mission, Cloud's disappearance and her task for the next day had given her too much to think about. Biggs, untroubled and exhausted, fell asleep within ten minutes.

Biggs rarely remembered his dreams, but when he woke the next day he was left with a vague impression of having been back in Gongaga. He'd wanted to go back for a while – he knew both his parents had died in the explosion, but his older brother might have recovered, and a lot of his friends hadn't been anywhere near the reactor at the time. Looking back, he thought he'd been in shock when he decided to run as far from Gongaga as his legs would take him when he'd literally tripped over the corpse of one of the reactor workers, but he'd felt guilty about not staying ever since – too guilty to back and face everyone.

"Tifa, are you awake?" he muttered. In the darkness, it was impossible to know what the time was – in the slums, the lights operated automatically, and transition between night and day had been done away with long ago.

"Only for the last hour. The lights will be coming on any minute now. Everyone else is awake – Barrett's off arranging some kind of transport. He wouldn't tell me what, but he looks rather pleased with himself. The other two are in the basement with Marlene." Tifa reeled this off as though she'd been planning her words for days – her mind was evidentially elsewhere.

The lights outside switched on, eliciting groans from those outside who hadn't been expecting the sudden flash. At that moment Barrett walked through the door, looking happier than he'd been for days. "Tifa, have a look outside," he said, smiling as he spoke. Biggs began to tense – Barrett was not supposed to act like this. That wasn't how things worked in AVALANCHE.

Still smiling, he turned towards the elevator. "Jessie! Wedge! Up here, now! An' get up, Biggs!" he yelled. Biggs's body relaxed. That was more like it. His curiosity roused, Biggs stood up and walked towards the door, barely managing to remain upright when he saw what was outside.

Barrett had hired – at least Biggs fervently hoped he'd only hired – a chocobo-drawn carriage. This was quite possibly the most expensive form of transport in the world short of Shinra's ships and planes. 'What was he _thinking?_" Biggs muttered to himself. It was a ten minute walk from the bar to Wall Market!

Wedge's voice came from behind him. "Hey, what's... happening…Barrett!What is this?" Biggs turned to stare at Wedge, mouth gaping. Never had he heard Wedge so much as speak loudly to Barrett – this had obviously pushed him over the edge.

"What's wrong?" Barrett came to join them outside, looking considerably less amused than earlier.

Wedge was nearly shaking with anger. "Could you inform me of the cost of this?"

"Three thousand gil. Wedge, if the Don thinks she's got money, then…"

'Do you remember that our plans last night depended on us having at least twice the funds that we had then? And do you realise that you just spent two thirds of those funds on a _ten minute trip?_" He had to have gone mad. Biggs couldn't think of any other reason for Wedge to interrupt Barrett. "Tifa, good luck, I hope you find out something useful. I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully. Now, I am going to leave - goodbye." He delivered this speech with perfect control over every syllable, and walked away without the slightest hint of fury. It was only when he was at the other end of the street that Biggs thought he heard a muffled scream of frustration.

Amazingly enough, Barrett didn't chase Wedge, simply snorting and then turning towards Tifa. "Hope you know what you're doin', Tifa." After this attempt at a farewell, he stormed back into the bar.

In the harsh glare of the slum's lights, Biggs noticed Tifa's new dress for the first time. It was nice enough – sky blue was a colour he needed to see more often - he supposed, but utterly impractical for fighting in. Perhaps the transport might be useful after all. "Tifa, I think your chances of been chosen are pretty damn good." Tifa didn't seem to be able to decide whether to be pleased about this judgment or not. "Just remember, don't give anything about us away unless it's absolutely necessary. Good luck." Biggs turned and walked away from the carriage awkwardly. He would have thought twice about joining AVALANCHE if he'd known he would end up in situations like this.

Jessie leant towards Tifa and whispered something that was inaudible to Biggs. From the anxious look on Jessie's face and Tifa's nervous smile, he didn't think he needed – or wanted - to hear. After their final goodbye, the carriage pulled away from the bar, and Biggs turned to give a final wave. He began to stroll towards the bar, not in too much of a hurry to meet Barrett after Wedge's outburst.

"Biggs, do you think it might be safer to stay out here for a little while?" Jessie's voice seemed unusually soft. She was gazing at the carriage as it rapidly moved towards the border of the sector.

"Probably." Normally he would have taken this as an insult to his power to stand up to Barrett, but at that moment he didn't feel like another round of their constant conflict – well, it wasn't even a conflict. Barrett had always ignored his attempts to prove that he could be any threat to his leadership.

"Why does this sort of thing always end up happening to us?" The words burst from Jessie as though she'd been holding them in for years. "Cloud is missing; Tifa has to get information from the Don…" An expression of disgust passed over her face momentarily at this. "…the Shinra have been tightening the security in here for weeks – they must at least suspect our location – and we're still fighting each other."

"Well…" Biggs paused, trying to work out why Jessie was upset about this. "I think it's because we don't have much in common, except for hating the Shinra – and we can't do much about the Shinra's power. We're all frustrated, and we've all had to live together for years – it isn't really surprising that we argue a lot." Biggs was rather pleased with his explanation, but it didn't seem to satisfy Jessie.

"But we're never able to put anything aside and argue later. It's amazing we get anything done at all."

"Most of it has a point, though. I mean, we have to make up plans on the spot sometimes, so we have to argue about everything that could go wrong. And with me and Wedge teasing each other – it's just a game. Maybe I do want to do better than Wedge in some things, but mostly it's just something to do to keep myself from going mad. And I think Wedge feels the same." Biggs was getting the impression that Jessie wasn't really paying attention to him. "Look, someone had better start serving the customers. Marlene shouldn't have to do all the work here." He clearly wasn't being of any use to Jessie, who continued to stare in the direction of Wall Market as Biggs headed back inside.

The room was empty, except for Marlene who was sitting on a stool and cleaning the glasses. "Hey, Marlene, why don't you go downstairs with your dad? I can do the work here." Biggs had always felt uncomfortable talking to Marlene - spending time with children wasn't something he'd ever done much of, and Marlene was too quiet to really have a conversation with. She slid off the stool and walked over to the elevator as Biggs picked up another glass and gave it a quick wipe, without paying much attention to the actual location of the grime which clung to the inside of it. Repetitive work had always appealed to Biggs – it allowed him to have some time to think without looking like he was being lazy.

He could hear the television blaring from the basement - the words couldn't be made out, but the sound of an explosion was played several times. Biggs grinned rather threateningly at nothing in particular at this. He didn't know why Shinra wanted to have footage of the bombing being played all the time – it could only undermine the perception of safety under their government. Well, if they wanted to make their own position weaker, he certainly wouldn't try to stop them.

Johnny staggered half-awake into the room. "Where's Tifa?" he muttered, raising his head momentarily to cast a glance around the room.

"She's had to go – look, it's none of your business, Johnny. Just get back to killing yourself with booze. Here." Biggs threw the first bottle he grabbed in Johnny's general direction. It hit the floor – Johnny's hand-eye co-ordination was rather poor, especially when he'd spent the previous night trying to drink his own body weight in alcohol – but didn't break, and he eagerly picked it up.

"I don't have any money…"

"What a surprise. How are you planning to pay us back for the last three years – taking over a small continent and selling it?" The rest of AVALANCHE had attempted to convince Tifa for the entire time she'd owned the bar that Johnny would never pay, but she insisted on serving him. Biggs had to admit that he hadn't been strictly correct– whenever Johnny had the money, he paid. The problem was that this happened once every three months if they were lucky.

"I'll find something. I'm going to leave Midgar soon. In fact, I'll stop by Sector 6 once more – just to say goodbye – and then I'm headed for Junon. I think I'll leave now, actually."

"Johnny, you said that two days ago." It had to be admitted, he never gave up.

"I'll send you the money once I'm settled somewhere. Tell Tifa goodbye, and that I hope I'll see her again sometime, and good luck to Barrett and everyone else with the fight, and – "

"We've done this before, Johnny. Tifa's in Sector 6, you might meet her if you hurry - and give me back the beer, if you're not staying." Reluctantly, Johnny threw the bottle to Biggs, who just managed to catch it and put it down gently next to him.

As Johnny walked out of the bar, Biggs murmured, "Good luck."


	7. Handfuls of Dust and Splinters of Bone

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters.

(Author's Note: Once again, I apologise for the long delay in updating.)

Handfuls of Dust and Splinters of Bone

The two figures standing opposite the Plate Support looked vaguely apprehensive. They had heard the rumors about the next move to wipe out the terrorists of Sector 7, and however much they might support this action, which could come at the cost of the lives of an eighth of Midgar's inhabitants, neither really wanted to be in the area when it happened. Not that they had any choice in the matter – they were, as one of their instructors had put it, the dregs of the dregs, and were happy enough that no-one had thought to reassign them to cleaning up the reactor explosions.

"Look on the bright side," one of the soldiers muttered. "At least someone else is talking to that lunatic today."

"What, the man who sleeps outside the gate? He's probably one of the sanest people left in Midgar. He's giving up trying for anything better than what he's got."

Both guards laughed awkwardly and did their best to ignore Sector 7.

"Have you ever climbed up the pillar?" The citizen of the gate had been talking about the Plate Support for the last half-hour, and was showing no signs of losing enthusiasm for the topic.

"No, I don't possess any great desire to die of exhaustion. A few people I know went up there once, before they tightened security, and they said that it's nothing special. Unless you really like stairs, I suppose." Wedge was not entirely certain of where this conversation was leading, but he needed an excuse to watch the soldiers. He had never seen them so tense before.

'You're probably right. But this place is my home, and I've always thought I'd like to see it from the top of…" The man's voice started to fade away as he saw the group of Shinra troops marching towards the base of the Plate Support. "… the pillar," he concluded softly.

Wedge took a few steps backwards and began fumbling for some sort of weapon reflexively, although he knew had had no chance of taking on the entire group and had left his gun back at the bar in any case. He cast a glance around for somewhere to hide, but there was nowhere he could move to without drawing too much attention to himself. The only thing to do now was to wait for the soldiers to pass, hope they didn't notice him, and then run back to the bar and alert the others.

Turning to look at the vagrant he had been talking to a few seconds earlier, Wedge was reminded of illustrations of the effects of the Stop spell from the books on Materia he had loved so much when he was younger. He had frozen completely and was watching the soldiers with an utterly expressionless face. "Come on," Wedge whispered urgently, "you don't want to be stuck here if these troops plan to hang around."

With a strange kind of exhaustion in his voice, the man replied, "I'm not leaving. I've lived here for ten years – do you think it's because I enjoy it? My family farmed the land around Midgar for generations, but after they built those reactors, almost every living thing from here to Kalm just… died. So I came here, and there was no work. But I survived, and I found this place, and I'm going to stay here whatever Shinra does!"

Wedge grimaced. Even in Midgar, after years of Shinra rule, which should have been enough to crush anyone's spirit, people were still prone to outbreaks of pointless self-sacrifice at the most inconvenient times. "Fine, stay if you want, but can you at least try to be quiet?" The troops – about twenty, he guessed, far more than any situation he could think of would warrant being called out to the Plate Support – didn't seem to paying any attention to them, but there was no point in taking risks. Their leader had unlocked the gate between the street and the tower, and the other soldiers climbed, with two stopping after every few flights of stairs to act as guards. One of the troops starting to ascend was carrying a large package rather nervously, and Wedge, although he could not be certain of the contents, was able to guess that it meant nothing good.

The regular guards of the area, still trying and failing to pretend they weren't scared, watched from the other side of the street as one of the two men there started moving very quickly towards the best bar in all Midgar.

At the sound of the excited shouts of the small crowd which had formed in the street, Jessie looked up, seeing nothing but the group of slum dwellers – and Wedge running towards her. "What's going on? Why is everyone out here?"

Pausing slightly to catch his breath, Wedge pointed in the direction of the Plate Support. "There are some Shinra soldiers climbing up, and I think that one of them has a bomb."

For a few seconds, Jessie could do nothing but stare at Wedge in horror. "That's ridiculous. They wouldn't do - why would Shinra want to destroy Sector 7?"

Wedge glared at her impatiently. "Us. You grew up in Midgar, and you don't think Shinra would be willing to destroy a sector if it meant the end of AVALANCHE?"

As one, Jessie and Wedge turned and ran towards the hideout.

Jessie burst through the door to find Biggs sitting at the bar, lost in thought. "Biggs, there are some soldiers at the Plate Support, and Wedge thinks they're planning to blow it up."

Wedge was rather more direct. "Biggs, get our guns, Barrett, and anything else that we could hit some Shinra grunts with." The other man leaped up from his stool, threw himself at the elevator, and was downstairs looking for weapons within a few seconds.

Jessie stared around the bar, trying to decide what they should do with Marlene. It would be too difficult to get her out of Sector 7, but on the other hand, staying would be incredibly dangerous…

Barrett clambered up the elevator shaft at that moment, Marlene held in his undamaged arm. Biggs followed closely behind him, having loaded the seat of the elevator with their guns and grenades. "Are we ready to go?" Biggs asked, hurriedly distributing the weapons.

"Hold on!" Barrett exclaimed. "What're we goin' to do with Marlene?"

"Leave her here," Wedge replied, "we don't have enough time to take her anywhere else." Barrett hesitated, and seemed about to start arguing, but a sudden increase in the volume of the shouts from the crowd outside seemed to convince him that they needed to get moving. He put Marlene down and hugged her tightly before running outside, waving his gunarm as though already seeking a target.

"I'll see you soon, Marlene," Jessie said, hoping her voice was more confident than her thoughts. With one last look around the place that had been her home for four years, she followed Barrett outside.

There was no time for Jessie to turn back and make sure that Biggs and Wedge had followed her, no time for anything expect running. This was a situation which years as a member of AVALANCHE had caused Jessie to be in quite often, but somehow she felt herself to be even more danger now than a normal mission put her in. Perhaps because this time, there was no chance of avoiding physical conflict, which she had always preferred to be a last resort. As Wedge, ever the realist, had always been so fond of pointing out, heroic battles and desperate last stands only look good in the history books when you manage to win the war as well, and with a five-man army, it was difficult to pull off both.

The distance between the hideout and the Plate Support had never been so long before, Jessie was certain. Her legs seemed to be moving automatically, with her thoughts fixed on what would happen if they failed to stop Shinra. Biggs was running beside her, his shotgun at the ready and a look somewhere between enthusiasm and desperation on his face. Barrett was at the base of the tower, and Jessie could hear the shouts of the soldiers already.

"Halt! What business do you have here?" As the others came to a stop at the gate, Barrett raised his gunarm threateningly, but was stopped from firing by the sound of Wedge's voice.

"Hey, don't you recognise me? There was something I wanted to talk to your captain about – is he around?" The troops looked at each other with a total lack of comprehension - as did the other members of AVALANCHE – and remained silent. "Oh well, I'll have to tell you two then. Listen very carefully: standard-issue Shinra armour is worthless for two reasons. These are that anyone can disguise themselves in it because it's too strong for your own bullets to penetrate, and –" Wedge lifted his gun as he finished his sentence, "- it provides absolutely no facial protection if you're talking to someone." With this, Wedge fired at the face of one of the soldiers, with Barrett spraying the general area of the tower with gunfire at the same time. Both of the guards fell to the ground within seconds, one having evidently died almost immediately after being hit, while the other thrashed around for a few seconds before becoming still.

"They were the ones from the train yesterday?" Biggs enquired brusquely. Wedge nodded.

"I recognized the one on the left. His eyes were glowing slightly. Obviously dropped out of SOLDIER pretty quickly, although I'm amazed that they admitted him in the first place. I mean, that was one step above 'Hey, look over there!'" As Wedge spoke, two more soldiers ran down the stairway towards them, having heard the earlier shots.

"My turn now." Biggs grinned slightly before bounding up the steps towards the troops, firing wildly as he did so. One of them was hit by pure chance and tumbled down towards the base of the tower – as one of the Shinra airborne soldiers, he wore no armour – but the other, slower but better protected, was unharmed by Biggs and got in a shot to his stomach which sent him sprawling across the stairs.

Barrett continued to fire in the general direction of anyone wearing a Shinra uniform while the other two ran towards the approaching guard, Wedge pulling the propeller from the uniform of the dead airborne soldier and stabbing desperately with it, not willing to take the risk of using his gun with Jessie and Biggs so near. The force with which Wedge slammed the makeshift weapon against the guard's armour was sufficient to knock him backwards, allowing Jessie to fire at the exposed section of his face until he stopped moving.

"Biggs, you ridiculously brave idiot, what have I been telling you about throwing yourself against superior forces for the last four years?" Wedge demanded as he rushed towards the severely injured Biggs.

Biggs was still capable of speech, if little else. "We don't have time for this, you three keep going." Seeing the look on Jessie's face, he added, "There's no point in the rest of you getting yourselves killed helping me. I'll manage, now go!"

Jessie knew that Biggs would be perfectly happy to die at that moment, if it meant the fight could continue. There was nothing she could do to please Biggs but go on up the tower, whatever that meant for him. Jessie didn't dare to look back at the figure draped over the railing of the stairs, knowing she wouldn't be able to bring herself to leave if she did. So, with Barrett and Wedge behind her, she ran on.

The soldiers appeared to have concentrated themselves at the top of the column, meaning that Jessie was only a few flights of stairs from the area where any bomb would have to be detonated to destroy the Plate Support before she encountered any further opposition. This group was composed of three grunts and a soldier who appeared to be their leader. As he raised his finger to the trigger of his gun just slightly before Jessie could aim hers, he realised that he had seen the woman before, but not until after the bullet had pierced her chest and the sounds of Wedge and Barrett firing in return could be heard throughout the tower did he realize exactly where and when.

"You see, men," he said with a smirk, steeling himself for the fight against these other rebels, "I told you we'd have our revenge."

Biggs had known that rebellion against Shinra was a very dangerous thing, and he had accepted that he it was very likely that he would die in doing so years ago. In a way, he wanted to sacrifice himself for the cause, but somehow he had never imagined his death being like this. He didn't necessarily want a glorious or even a dramatic end, but a quick one had always been something he had hoped for. The only thing to do now was to hold onto the hope that the others would succeed in stopping Shinra somehow.

Even as consciousness began to drift away from him – the bandana he had been using as a bandage had slipped from his weakening grip, and he could feel the blood flowing down his body – he heard footsteps and tensed, expecting a Shinra soldier to have come to finish the job off. The voice which he heard, without being able to make out the words, belonged to the mercenary Barrett had brought in a few days ago. Cloud, that was his name. He was a good fighter, if not much of a person. Not the man Biggs had managed exchanging his last words with, but better than no one.

"Cloud… so you don't care… what happens… to the Planet?"

The man seemed to be struggling fiercely to find the words he wanted. "You're wounded…"

Biggs smiled at this, quite possibly the first time he'd smiled from pure happiness since he had left Gongaga. "Thanks, Cloud… don't worry about me… Barrett's up there fighting… go and help him…"

Biggs allowed his eyes to close, knowing that Cloud would go to help Barrett. AVALANCHE would win this battle somehow, or at least survive. Cloud was a survivor, if nothing else. Shinra would be destroyed, the Planet be saved. At that moment, Biggs realised that his death meant nothing. He didn't want glory; he wanted his cause to succeed. His thoughts returned to Cosmo Canyon, to what he had been taught about the Planet and the Lifestream there. If Shinra was destroyed, the Planet would survive, and his body and spirit would return to it.

Biggs did not hear the sound of the Plate Support collapsing. He did not feel the weight of the Plate crushing his body into no more than a few patches of blood and skin surrounded by rubble. The thought stayed with him as he slipped into unconsciousness – he would return to the Planet. If no one remembered him in a few years' time, or if he became an historical figure with which to bore generations of future schoolchildren, it would make no difference. When time had destroyed his body, his own fight would have preserved his spirit. There could be no better death than that.


End file.
